


Or You Can Risk It All and See (the Fear in My Eyes)

by snowflight



Series: Yun/Elias Series (name to be changed) [3]
Category: The Other Side (Short Film - emilyamiao)
Genre: Angry Elias But That's How He Shows Concern, But after they argue first, Emotional Conflict, Fluff, Light Angst, Light Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Opening up... just a bit, Soft Ending, Yun Stop Evading Everything, emotional tension, injuries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-02
Updated: 2021-01-02
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:15:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28489668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snowflight/pseuds/snowflight
Summary: Yun wasn't supposed to do that. It was stupid and risky, heknew.But he did it anyways, and now he has to deal with the consequences—namely, Elias's reaction.
Relationships: Elias Everstied & Yun, Elias Everstied/Yun
Series: Yun/Elias Series (name to be changed) [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2148555
Comments: 17
Kudos: 64





	Or You Can Risk It All and See (the Fear in My Eyes)

**Author's Note:**

> To get the best experience, please make sure you understand the setting and characters first through the pinned comment written by the creator, [emilyamiao](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRbGtNolxCCItg572u7kBZA), on [the animatic](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvtxgkC-oz8). You can read my compiled version [here](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/705552350089183286/794716441047465994/2Q.png)!

It all began with the two of them in a room. Two chairs, two stances, and an exchange of words.

So perhaps it’s only fitting now that Yun finds himself in a room with Elias once again. Only, this time, _Elias_ is the one dragging _him_ into it—quite literally, as he pulls him into the office with a grip that feels excessively harsh considering the wounds on both of their bodies.

As Elias closes the door, Yun notes with an ironic sort of concern that the slam of it shutting sounds a bit harsher than what seems safe for the door’s construction.

“This is my office, you know,” Yun says airily. “If that breaks, you’re paying.”

Then Elias turns to Yun, and the anger flashing in his eyes tells Yun that perhaps paying for the door might be the least of Elias’s current concerns. 

“Before that,” Elias says, his voice low, “why don’t you explain to me what the hell that was?”

The nonchalant smile slides onto Yun’s face as easily as it always has. “What do you mean?”

“Don’t start with that,” Elias snaps. “I really don’t have the patience to deal with you right now.”

“Then don’t.” Yun shrugs. “The door is—”

“Not before you tell me what you were thinking back there.” Elias takes a step forward and his voice gains a steel-sharp edge. “I thought you were supposed to be _smart.”_

“You did?” Yun meets his gaze. “I’m flattered.”

“Don’t be, because now I’m not so sure,” Elias says. “Especially since apparently you think that charging at a bunch of armed soldiers _isn’t_ an absolutely idiotic—”

“We’re alive. They’re dead.” Yun keeps his voice calm, _impenetrable,_ with meticulous precision _,_ but that doesn’t stop the agitation from jumping inside him. “It still ended up in our favour.”

“And if our backup arrived one second later,” Elias says, “then that would’ve been a very different story.”

Yun resists the urge to raise a hand to the wound on his shoulder. “So what’s your point?”

Elias pauses. Then he says, “Why?”

“That’s a pretty vague question.”

Elias’s gaze remains firm. “Why?”

“Oh, why do I want you to pay for my door?” Yun plasters on another easygoing smile. “Well, that’s because it’s hand-carved mahogany, and—”

 _“Why?”_ Elias says again, a cold finality in his voice.

And Yun realizes that Elias has been his ally for so long that his tactics of stalling won’t work anymore—that Elias by now has realized the only way to win at Yun’s game is to not play at all.

After all, he knows full well what Elias is asking. And it’s not about the door.

Yun lets out a sigh of mock disappointment. “You’re no fun, you know that?”

Now Elias eases up, the tension leaving his form just a bit, but the firmness in his expression doesn’t waver. 

“I’m not here for fun. I’m here for answers. So tell me—why did you insist on trying to fight? Why didn’t you retreat like I was telling you to?”

Yun shrugs, ignoring the discomfort that twists inside him at the memory. “I thought I could take them.”

Elias snorts. “You're not fooling me. Since when did you run in with no plan and just the thought that somehow you could single-handedly take down five soldiers?”

A pause.

 _“Well, I like to surprise once in a while,”_ is the reply that instantly forms inside Yun. But then he notices that the fury in Elias’s gaze has now been replaced by a flicker of... _something_ that Yun can’t quite identify.

And he hesitates.

Elias continues gazing at him. He doesn’t say anything, but the storm in his eyes doesn’t stop swirling.

“All right,” Yun finally says after a few seconds. “I guess that wasn’t one of my most... _cautious_ moments.” 

He speaks haltingly, because the feeling of conceding—of removing even a sliver of the armor of confidence he’s always worn—is still a bit too unknown to him. 

_And scary,_ part of him whispers.

Yun pushes down the uneasiness fluttering inside him and continues. “And it could’ve turned out really badly. I can see that clearly now, but I didn’t fully take that into account at the time.”

He finally lets his hand rise to touch the wound on his shoulder and grant himself a momentary relief from its incessant throb.

“So, yes,” Yun says, dropping his hand, “considering all of those details, you could call it a slip-up on my part.” 

“It was more than just a slip-up.”

“Apologies. It was a _mistake._ And I won’t do it again. Happy?”

“No.” Elias narrows his eyes. “You haven’t told me why it happened in the first place.”

“Since when were you so nosy about things?” Yun feels his hand clenching against his will, even as his expression remains steady. “Despite what you might think, I can guarantee you that getting fatally shot isn’t something I want to experience anytime soon—so I mean it when I say that it won’t happen again.”

“That’s not enough.” Elias’s tone remains even, but Yun can hear the faintest growl of anger rumbling in his words. “You say that it won’t happen again, but there’s no way for me to know for sure that it won’t.”

“I’m not too clear what you want from me here.” Now Yun can’t stop his irritation from spilling into his voice just a bit. “Would you like me to go find a nice little group of enemies? So I can demonstrate to you that I would, in fact, retreat from them?”

“No. I want to know _why_ you didn’t flee the first time.”

“I already—”

“And don’t lie to me,” Elias hisses. “Because we both know that you’d never do something like that normally.”

Yun finally feels the smile drop from his face, feels the glare replace it.

“Then why don’t you first tell me why you’re so insistent about this?” he says. “ I don’t interrogate _you_ over the reckless things you do, and your collection of them is ten times as large as mine.”

“It’s different when you almost _die_ from it.” Elias’s voice rises. “If you barely got out alive this time, then how am I supposed to know that you aren’t going to run off and die next time?”

Then, to Yun’s own surprise, a laugh leaves his throat, harsh and bitter—a sound unfamiliar to him amongst the countless honey-coated words and silk-smooth persuasions he’s given out.

“And why are you so worried about that?” he says. “Last time I checked, _you_ were the one who was so reluctant to join _me.”_

Then Elias hesitates for a split-second.

And Yun seizes the moment. 

“If I die,” he says, coldly, cuttingly, “you can just leave it up to our allies to end the war. They’ve practically got it in the bag by now. My death certainly won’t impede their ability to break through the last remnants of the ADP’s defenses and get this whole thing over with.”

He flashes a smile at Elias, bold and challenging. 

“And more importantly, if I die, you’ll have the liberty to go and live that free life you were planning to live before I _extorted_ you into joining me.” Yun raises his hands and holds his palms out, a mockery of a welcome. “So from the way I see it, my death should be—”

“Don’t talk like you know me.”

“I know you well enough, Elias Everstied.”

At that, something sharp flashes in Elias’s eyes and he draws himself up. 

“You’re a fool if you think this is about me,” he snarls. “Because guess what? I’d be more than happy to go and live a nice life away from this godforsaken mess of a country.”

Yun hums. “And you say I don’t know you.”

“You don’t, because that’s as far as what you got right. Somehow, you have the impression that I’m just sitting here and awaiting your death with open arms. Somehow, everything I said up until now wasn’t enough to make you realize that I don’t actually _want_ you to die.”

“All right, but that doesn’t—” 

“And second of all, this isn’t about me and my desire to have a nice life away from the war.”

“Then what is it about?”

“This is about _you_ and me not wanting you to die because of _you.”_

Yun can’t help but bristle at that. “I wasn’t lying, Elias. The enemy is on its last legs. We’ve practically won at this point, and if I died, our victory would be just as ensured, so you don’t actually _need_ me too—”

“It’s not about you in terms of the war.”

“Then in what way?” Frustration flares up inside Yun and he feels his voice rising. “I’m a useful ally? You really like all the connections and resources that I come with?” He lets out a scornful laugh. “Or I know, maybe you actually figured out that—”

“I don’t want you to die,” Elias snaps, “not because of the war, or because you’re a useful ally, _but because I—”_

Then he takes in a sharp inhale and his expression ripples into what looks like a _flinch._

Yun blinks, his anger faltering in the face of his confusion. “Because you...?”

“Because I...” Elias says, a quiet strain in his voice. “I value you.”

There’s a beat of silence as his words hang in the air. 

Yun raises an eyebrow. “You _value_ me.” 

Another beat.

Then Elias lets out a heavy sigh and runs a hand through his hair. “Look. You are the most infuriating, insufferable person I’ve ever met in my life—” 

“Thanks.”

“—but we’ve been through a lot together. Both good and bad. And at this point, I feel like we’re not only allies, but...”

“Are you going to say ‘friends’?” Despite the tension that filled him moments ago, Yun feels a teasing smirk tugging at the edge of his lips. “If you are, I’m calling a doctor right now. Wounds are one thing, but sudden sentimentalism coming from you is another.”

Elias shoots Yun a look that’s half-annoyed and half-resigned. “I’m not wrong though, am I?”

Now it’s Yun’s turn to pause with uncertainty.

Their first meeting also came down to the two of them in a room and accompanied by an exchange of words. 

But their exchange back then was simply another round of the game that Yun’s been playing for nearly his entire life, a dance of half-truths, a wrestle of words with their true meanings hidden by deliberate smiles and taunting wit.

And _this_ exchange—this sincerity, this openness, this raw _acknowledgement_ —is all too new to him. Unfamiliar.

_Scary._

“Well,” Yun finally says, “I guess you’re not.”

“Yeah,” Elias says slowly. He looks as unfamiliar with this conversation as Yun feels. “And I honestly... wouldn’t be able to imagine not having your presence around anymore. So I don’t want you to die. Is that so strange?”

A response would instantly be on Yun’s tongue by now. But for the first time in his life, he finds himself empty of one. No sharp retort, no witty reply, and not even some half-hearted attempt at a joke.

When the pause stretches into seconds of silence, Elias lets out a deep breath.

“Okay, nevermi—” 

“My dad was there.”

Elias blinks. “Pardon?”

“My dad was there,” Yun says again, making his voice firm, “in that group of soldiers. Mr. Secretary of State, the most corrupt person I know, and someone I’ve considered an enemy for most of my life... Yeah, that guy.” 

“Oh. I see.”

As realization fills Elias’s gaze, Yun has to glance away from it.

“So yeah, you’re right. I’d normally never just run up to the enemy like that.” A wry laugh leaves his mouth. “But I guess... even I’m not immune to irrationality every once in a while.”

“Then next time, just tell me, and I’ll kill him for you.”

Yun looks up at Elias.

“I actually know how to fight.” Elias has his arms crossed, head slightly tilted to the side. “And I won’t have to have a heart attack watching you almost kill yourself. How does that sound?”

Yun blinks, then feels a smirk break his face. “That’s a deal.”

Elias glances down at his bloodied clothes. “And also so I won’t have to get injured saving your stupid ass.”

“Oh. Yeah. Thanks for that.” Yun winces, the pain from his own wounds suddenly a lot more acute. “I should have some medical supplies in my office though. Wait here.”

“Great. I’d love to stop bleeding through my favourite outfit right about now.”

Yun walks over to a cabinet at the far wall of the office. “Half of your outfit is red.” He opens a pair of doors. “Nobody will see the blood.”

“And hopefully it’ll remain half-red and not full-red.”

Yun grabs the medical kit at the back of the shelf. “Looks like your outfit is saved.”

“Awesome,” Elias says when Yun returns. “Give me some gauze right now.”

Yun opens the kit and begins rummaging through its contents. 

“By the way,” Yun says as he finds a roll of gauze, “you interrupted me in the moment earlier, but after _‘useful ally,’_ the next thing I was going to say was, _'Maybe you actually figured out that I’m super funny and charming and you’ve fallen madly in love with me?’”_

Elias lets out a huff that sounds like both a laugh and a snort. “You wish.”

Yun grins and throws the gauze at Elias in response.

But as they then begin tending to their wounds, Yun doesn’t miss the way Elias murmurs, “But I guess that’s close enough.”

**Author's Note:**

> "what's the best way to set up a situation like this? .... Yun's daddy issues."  
> \- me, 2021
> 
> SORRY YUN HAHA but man, this was so so fun to write. Writing these two in such an emotionally tense scenario was both a challenge and an enjoyment for me, and I hope my interpretation of them felt fitting! also the ending of my own fic makes me soft LOL I love them so much... 
> 
> In case you haven't seen the beautiful coloured drawings, [Elias's outfit](https://www.youtube.com/post/UgxxHs1A0Tsq6CAK_IN4AaABCQ) is _indeed_ half-red >:)
> 
> Anyways, hope you enjoyed the read! Any kudos or comments would be an amazingly pleasant surprise, especially since I'd love to say hi to anybody else in this small but growing fandom!! Thanks for reading! <3


End file.
